Insurance Benefits Services, offers you the Protection of Long-Term
Care Insurance coverage . Listed below is some helpful information regarding Long-Term Care Insurance. Let us know if you would like to have an agent create a proposal for you, to see if Long-Term Care Insurance makes sense for you and your family.

What is Long-Term Care?

Long-term care is a variety of services that includes medical and non-medical care to people who have a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care helps meet health or personal needs. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, and using the bathroom. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in assisted living or in nursing homes. It is important to remember that you may need long-term care at any age.

You may never need long-term care. This year, about nine million men and women over the age of 65 will need long-term care. By 2020, 12 million older Americans will need long-term care. Most will be cared for at home; family and friends are the sole caregivers for 70 percent of the elderly. A study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that people who reach age 65 will likely have a 40 percent chance of entering a nursing home. About 10 percent of the people who enter a nursing home will stay there five years or more.

Medicare and Long-Term Care:

While there are a variety of ways to pay for long-term care, it is important to think ahead about how you will fund the care you get. Generally, Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term care. Medicare pays only for medically necessary skilled nursing facility or home health care. However, you must meet certain conditions for Medicare to pay for these types of care. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, and using the bathroom. Medicare doesn’t pay for this type of care called "custodial care". Custodial care (non-skilled care) is care that helps you with activities of daily living. It may also include care that most people do for themselves, for example, diabetes monitoring. Some Medicare Advantage Plans (formerly Medicare + Choice) may offer limited skilled nursing facility and home care (skilled care) coverage if the care is medically necessary. You may have to pay some of the costs. For more information about Medicare Advantage Plans, click here Medicare Advantage.

Medicaid and Long-Term Care:

Medicaid is a State and Federal Government program that pays for certain health services and nursing home care for older people with low incomes and limited assets. In most states, Medicaid also pays for some long-term care services at home and in the community. Who is eligible and what services are covered vary from state to state. Most often, eligibility is based on your income and personal resources.

Choosing Long-Term Care:

Choosing long-term care is an important decision. Planning for long-term care requires you to think about possible future health care needs. It is important to look at all of your choices. You will have more control over decisions and be able to stay independent. It is important to think about long-term care before you may need care or before a crisis occurs. Even if you plan ahead, making long-term care decisions can be hard.

"Long Term Care Is Just For The Elderly."

The need for LTC can arise for anyone, from the elderly to the very young. While the majority of those requiring LTC are certainly older people, numerous cases also arise from severe unexpected illnesses, automobile accidents, or mishaps of various kinds.

"It's Something That Happens To Other People."

Of the 12.8 million people that need help with everyday activities almost 40% (5.1 million) are working age adults (ages 18-64). (1)

"Long Term Care Means Nursing Home."

Surprisingly, health care institutions provide only 22% of long term care. An overwhelming 78% is provided at home or in the community. (2) And 64% of those caregivers have jobs outside the home. (3)


The Issue.

As a national average, one year in a nursing home is estimated to cost $40,000. In some regions, it can easily cost twice that amount. Home care is less expensive but still adds up. Bringing a health care professional into your home just three times a week can easily cost $1,000 each month, or $12,000 each year. (5)

Currently, personal savings and government funding programs may be inadequate to cover the vast majority of long term care expenses. Personal assets of most individuals are often alarmingly inadequate to cover long term care. Clearly, many individuals and families could see their assets quickly disappear.

There is a critical gap that needs to be filled -- one you can fill with Unum Life Insurance Company of America's Long Term Care Insurance.

The vast majority of caregivers are family members. Today, almost one fourth of American households -- over 22 million -- are providing informal care to a friend or relative. That's three times the number of caregivers reported ten years ago. (6)


Sources (Statistics are based on projections by the author)
1 Employee Benefit Research Institute Issue Brief No. 163, July 1995.
2 "The Lowdown on Long Term Care," Business and Health, August, 1995, p. 19.
3 "More Spend Time Caring for Elders," Karen S. Peterson, USA Today, March 18, 1997, p. 1D.
4 Ibid.
5 HIAA "Consumers Guide to Long Term Care," 1996.
6 "More Spend Time Caring for Elders," Karen S. Peterson, USA Today, March 18, 1997, p. 1D.